Direct Debit for £1 a year - does it qualify?

tryin

Only one bill paid with direct debit right now. Thanks for directing me to that thread, although not sure if its worth the effort if all I'm saving is 1 quid a year...

PRAISETHESUN

The Santander 123 account gives cashback on regular household bills - ideally you'll want as many of these attached to the account in order to maximise cashback. If you can't scrounge enough DDs to meet the monthly requirement this way then I'd probably suggest doing some maths and seeing if the account is still worthwhile for you. As above Marcus pays only a fraction less interest but has no monthly fee so you'd be much better off if you aren't getting any cashback.

But to answer your question, yes Santander requires only "active" direct debits not to actually pay out every month. An active DD is one that is set up and capable of making a payment if called upon. Most DDs last for 13 months from when they were set up, or 13 months from when they were last used - whichever is later. An annual DD would be sufficient to keep the account active and meet the requirements.

born_again

Set up a DD to the National lottery. Better than throwing £1 to some company just to have a DD...

tryin

The point was smalldirectdebit has a direct debit for £1 a year. With the national lottery I would need to give every month.

YorkshireBoy

Could I ask a few questions?...

[1] How much cashback do you get each month from the one DD generating it?

[2] What's the average balance in the 123 account? If you'd rather not say exactly (although I'm not sure why you wouldn't), then is it:

a) less than £5K
b) £5-10K
c) £10-15K
d) £15-20K

[3] What's the % return on [2] once you've factored in £60 of fees and the cashback?

Zero_Sum

tryin wrote: »

The point was smalldirectdebit has a direct debit for £1 a year. With the national lottery I would need to give every month.

Open a PO savings account & set up £1 DD

Neil_Jones

tryin wrote: »

Then I need to store the cash in one account, transfer it just before each bill is due. Makes life complicated. And besides, the lite also has the same direct debit requirement, which brings us back to my original question, which seems to have been answered.

It is not complicated. It all boils down to how much effort you want to to put in to make your money work for you.

If you set up your banking correctly and aim for as many direct debits to go out, say, 5th-10th of the month then you only need to ensure there is £1000 (or whatever) in the account from the 4th onwards and it takes care of itself until the following month. That is not complicated, it's forward planning.

The wider argument presented with regards to the 123 accounts has been answered. However from what you've said it sounds like this isn't the right account for you anyway if you have to scrabble around like this to meet the requirements of the account. If you're not generating enough cashback to cover the monthly fee you might as well not bother. You only get the full 1.5% interest payment if you can stash £20k in it, once it drops below I think somewhere around £8k you're losing more than you gain.

aau1

Zero_Sum wrote: »

Open a PO savings account & set up £1 DD

I do the above and I also send £1 via Paypal to my wife (funded by the appropriate bank account)

So 2x£1 direct debits go out every month but the £2 is never paid to to an external party

raggs

new to site may be wrong place to ask but can any 1 tell me who is at fault when a customer cancelled a dd in plenty of time 4 weeks in advance with the natwest bank and the company whos been paid but the dd still goes out and this in turn causes the bank account to go overdrawn and is the dd guarantee statement incorrect it says, if a error is made by the bank or company the customer is entitled to a full and immediate refund? natwest have told me this is not correct or legal its not they fault and any charges the bank makes have to be reclimed from the company the company say its natwest fault nothing to do with them were do i stand

boo_star

raggs wrote: »

new to site may be wrong place to ask but can any 1 tell me who is at fault when a customer cancelled a dd in plenty of time 4 weeks in advance with the natwest bank and the company whos been paid but the dd still goes out and this in turn causes the bank account to go overdrawn and is the dd guarantee statement incorrect it says, if a error is made by the bank or company the customer is entitled to a full and immediate refund? natwest have told me this is not correct or legal its not they fault and any charges the bank makes have to be reclimed from the company the company say its natwest fault nothing to do with them were do i stand

Direct Debits are requested, not "pushed out" so it is the company claiming it that are at fault. However they may have a clause stating that there needs to be a certain amount of notice between cancellation and the payment date, although 4 weeks seems ridiculously excessive.